Morgan County Republicans chose their candidates for the upcoming election during their county assembly Saturday – and they will take those offices unless the Democrats field candidates or a Republican does a write-in campaign.

So far, the Democrats have not announced any candidates for the offices of county commissioner, county clerk, county treasurer, county assessor or county coroner.

However, the Republicans did not choose anyone to run against Democratic candidate and Morgan County Sheriff Jim Crone for the sheriff’s office.

There will be a contest, though, between the two Republican candidates for the county clerk and recorder’s office.

A paper ballot of the assembly delegates showed 92 votes for Susan Bailey and 47 votes for LaNette Nestor. That meant they both go onto the Republican primary ballot, since a candidate for the Republican’s primary only has to get 30 percent of the vote at the assembly for that person’s name to go on the ballot.

Morgan County Commissioner Laura Teague will likely keep her seat in the November election, since the Democrats have not found anyone to run against her. Similarly, Morgan County Treasurer Bob Sagel, Morgan County Assessor Bob Wooldridge and Morgan County Coroner Don Heer are in the same position.

Delegates

A big job at the assembly was ratifying the choices for delegates to the higher Republican assemblies.

Each precinct chose one candidate to each of the state assemblies, which include the Colorado GOP State Assembly, the 4th Congressional District assembly, the 1st Senate District assembly and the 65th Representative District assembly.

The rest of the delegates and alternates are chosen by a committee, and all of the choices were approved unamimously.

The state assembly will be held at the Coors Event Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder on April 12. The rest of the assemblies will be held at the Omni Interlocken Hotel in Broomfield on April 11.

Other candidates

A number of other candidates spoke at the assembly, although they were for statewide offices.

Some of those were running for the Republican nomination for the 4th Congressional District, including Steve Laffey, Barbara Kirkmeyer, Barry Walter Jr. and Ken Buck.

Also speaking was Holly Williams, for her husband, Wayne Williams who is running for Colorado secretary of state.

Some other candidates sent letters, which were read to the assembly.

Jon Becker, a former Colorado House of Representatives member, was on hand. He is running for the 65th House District to get into the House again. He had chosen to step aside in favor of current State Representative Jerry Sonnenberg when the districts were redistricted a couple of years ago.

Sonnenberg was also there. He is running for the Colorado Senate, since he is term limited in the Colorado House of Representatives.

Neither Becker nor Sonnenberg have any opponents so far.

Oil

Sonnenberg told the crowd that he is backing a ballot initiative that was filed last Thursday to deny state severance taxes to cities or counties that ban fracking.

If the initiative gets 18,000 signatures on petitions within a deadline, it would go on the ballot in November.

He said that populations that do not support fracking should not share in the economic benefits.

Resolutions

The assembly also approved three resolutions to send to the state assembly for possible inclusion in the state Republican Party platform.

The first would urge all Republican candidates to work to repeal the recent gun laws approved by the Colorado legislature in 2013.

The second would urge the support of Amendment 67, called the Brady Amendment, which is backed by the Colorado Right to Life committee. It is meant to offer “protection” to “unborn children.” It would require the inclusion of the words “person” and “child” in the Colorado Criminal Code and the Colorado Wrongful Death Act. This is intended to prevent abortions by giving the fetus status as an “unborn human being.”

The third resolution says that there must be no use of foreign laws in interpreting the U.S. Constitution and U.S. laws.

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